Simplicitea and Starbucks
Macalester-Groveland area, a neighborhood generally considered quiet, homely, and clean, is composed of highly-educated residents who are predominantly white middle-class. In the neighborhood, there are two stores only a few minutes from each other, but they are perceived as drastically different—Starbucks and Simplicitea—one serves as a chain coffee store while the other is a local boba tea store. Our research through participant observations and interviews, however, reveals that the stores share similarities: they both use “exotic” elements to serve white middle-class consumers. Additionally, we find that people conform to the rules and norms of those places through the impacts of social media. Macalester-Groveland neighborhood as a case study illustrates that white middle-class individuals utilize exoticism as a way to demonstrate their race and class positions while reinforcing racial grammar.
As soon as we enter Simplicitea, we see a giant boba statue with tapioca on them. The store is decorated with topics theme: vines hanging down from the ceiling and the store is painted yellow. We see small origami birds on the giant windows. There is a giant gazebo for customers to sit in. The menu is drawn by chalk and we see drawings of koi fish on it.
![IMG_7095[1].JPG](https://sites.macalester.edu/macgrovelandethnography/files/fullsize/b3789710c7a4ea2c2a7fd109b97a0536.jpg "IMG_7095[1].JPG")
Starbucks has small, warm light all over the shop. Store decor is black and wooden brown industrial style. The walls are carbon grey. And the ceilings are grey. The paintings on the walls show minimalistic (black and white designs). I can see the inside of the worker kitchen area-has two big fridge. the chairs and couches are leather and are comfortable and seem fancy. A big chalkboard has drawings of the mermaid starbucks logo. . On the counter, there’s a glass cage full of sandwiches, snacks and some cold bottled drinks. Besides the counter there’s a mini bar for protein bar and quick chocolate and a lot of gift cards. There’s a map on the side of the building (I should go back and check it) and there’s a giant shelf on the other side with dozens of starbucks merches- mugs, cups, bagged coffees. There’s some that is maybe indie pop playing in the background (The Beach Boys). The doors and window are all clear- you can see outside well) The front window faces snelling with a good amount of traffic. The back door is towards a large parking space that people with cars can enter. The big windows allow lights to penetrate. There are many chargers for people. There’s an ingenious land map about the town cities.
Social media has become a tool to connect people across the world, it inspires people to create and to adventure. In this case, it inspires people to try new drinks and explore outside their comfort zone. Such as getting milk tea with tapioca pearls to Pumpkin Chai Tea lattes. Typically there is a lot of advertisement on behalf of Starbucks's social media page as well, as people on TikTok tend to post these drinks to advertise, as, “That time of year.”
Two different interview responses when discussing Starbucks and Simplicitea. Each interviewee had a different experience for each place but were influenced in choosing each place because of their influence in Social media.
When discussing Starbucks, it was mentioned by one of the interviewees that there was a certain stereotype for consumers going to Starbucks. This image represents what is posted on Social media and what the stereotype consists of.
